The prior art has disclosed a plurality of brassiere structures with the stated goal of enabling women who have undergone mastectomy operations to again realize their pre-mastectomy appearance. Nonetheless, women who have had mastectomies have been relegated to the status of wearing what are essentially medical devices while their counterparts who have not experienced mastectomies enjoy a nearly infinite range of choices of brassiere styles, types, and colors. Prosthetic brassieres have demonstrated themselves to be overbuilt, harness-like structures that are heavy, bulky, and less than feminine. Being primarily utilitarian in nature, they have proven notoriously uncomfortable and aesthetically displeasing.
Under the present state of the art, it can be said that a woman seeking to purchase a mastectomy brassiere can have any brassiere style or color that she wants, provided it is the same as the one or two colors or styles carried by the supplier. Indeed, many a woman seeking a prosthetic brassiere has been met with the ability to select only between first and second models, both equally matronly in appearance and feel. Similarly, prosthetic brassieres of the prior art have commonly been limited to a single color or just two colors, such as black and white.
Furthermore, prosthetic brassieres of the prior art have often left the wearer with insufficient privacy in that many prior art prosthetic brassieres can separate from the chest wall of the wearer during certain movements, such as when the woman bends or twists. When such a separation occurs, scars deriving from pectoral incisions can be exposed and the partial or complete removal of the breast can be perceived. As one will readily appreciate, such an exposure can be embarrassing and can substantially eviscerate the basic purpose of the prosthetic brassiere.
Even further, many previously-disclosed prosthetic brassieres have proven to be difficult to manipulate physically, particularly for those who have recently undergone a mastectomy. Many brassieres require the manipulation of multiple complex fasteners. Other brassieres additionally or alternatively dispose the brassiere closure to the rear of the brassiere thereby further exacerbating the difficulty of operation for a woman having undergone mastectomy surgery.
As a result of these and further disadvantages demonstrated by the prior art, women who have undergone mastectomies have not only been severely limited in the brassieres available to them, but they have also effectively been foreclosed from wearing entire classes and types of garments. For example, those having experienced a mastectomy commonly have been unable to wear garments with low necklines. Furthermore, they have found it awkward, impossible, or at least aesthetically less than ideal to wear highly feminine garments. In any case, it has been the unfortunate state of the art that women who have experienced a mastectomy have for the most part been segregated into wearing entirely different classes of undergarments and clothing and, as a result, have been left, at least in certain respects, to feel and behave different from women who have not undergone such an operation.
Like substantially all Americans, the present inventors believe that an integral part of the American Dream is the freedom to choose, including in relation to the style of one's dress. However, as one would expect in light of the abovedescribed state of the art, after personally experiencing a mastectomy, it was found that very little choice presently exists for a woman having undergone a mastectomy. Indeed, a woman will commonly find there to be just a few white brassiere styles, one style in black, and all options decidedly matronly. While facing the prospect of being forced to wear one of these supposed choices, a woman will quickly come to the stark realization that many of the clothes in her closet are no longer wearable. Strapless, scooped neck, spaghetti strapped, and similarly feminine garments are rendered off limits under the present state of the art. Indeed, in response to one of the inventor's question as to whether there was anything else available, a store clerk simply noted that the inventor was alive, as though that entirely justified the substantially complete loss of choice. That response and the resulting perception that an entire group of women no longer mattered made painfully clear to the inventors that there was a clear need for the design and creation of a comfortable, feminine variety of mastectomy brassieres.